Katharyn King is the brains behind the new indie sci-fi book series that imagines a future Seattle in the year 2152 — but digitally reconstructed by a Lesbian with schizophrenia. The concept of the series, which will be made into a film, is both bold and deeply personal.

“Glass Stars is my prediction of what Seattle will look like in 2152 if a Lesbian with schizophrenia had developed a simulation of Earth and people started uploading their consciousnesses into it and living in it full time,” King told the SGN. “It creates that digital sanctuary space.”

That sanctuary was born of necessity. For her, the simulated world she created is more than fiction: it became a place of escape and safety, she said, adding that she need to channel her trauma into a platform after leaving the military and being diagnosed with schizophrenia.

“Now I can tell a story through the lens of my lived experience,” King said.

King is a disabled Army veteran who served as a 35P (cryptolinguist), and she uses this background to shape Glass Stars' characters and themes.

“We have two different characters, these sisters. One of them handled more of the physical combat, and the other one handled more of the intel side of things,” she explained. “My experience definitely plays into this, because I'm going to talk a lot about cyberwarfare and the conventional actions that happen in the real world.”

Not only is this cutting-edge series grounded in the serious mental health condition King lives with but also Queer survival and digital sanctuary, she said. Glass Stars explores layered questions about identity, safety, and the future of marginalized communities.

“It's a scary time, and I'm like, well, is there a place for people like me?” she asked. “For Lesbians? And now I have schizophrenia — it’s like compounding.”

Unlike typical portrayals in media, Glass Stars doesn’t relegate schizophrenia to a background twist. King said that when she sees the sci-fi realm attempt to tackle the mental health condition, it’s used as a “plot device,” rather than employing  a character living with schizophrenia as the protagonist.

Breaking barriers by centering a protagonist with schizophrenia

The creator brings 13 years of lived experience with treatment-resistant schizophrenia to the screen.

“Ordinarily, for me, without ketamine at all... there’s like this voice that just sits behind me all day long, and he just yells at me. I call him ‘Control’,” King said.

King doesn’t shy away from the impact her mental health condition has had on her life and career. She explained how during her graduate program, she had a breakdown and eventually flunked out, despite having a 3.9 GPA, thinking her life was over. King ended up also losing her job. She said she wasn’t getting the proper assistance she needed to manage her schizophrenia. But she persevered through all of it, and became a teacher anyway.

Public misunderstanding of schizophrenia, and its stereotypes, remains some of the most painful obstacles to overcome, according to King.

“We’re being told all people with schizophrenia are scary — and then that’s not true,” King said. “But then there are the few... who do hurt people.”

Regardless, King is still like any other person who has hopes and dreams, and bills to pay.

“When people look at you and they say, ‘You’re crazy, you’re delusional, you’re not safe to be around children,’ I’m just like, ‘I haven’t done anything wrong,’” King said.

Filming in Seattle’s Queer spaces and familiar settings

While the Glass Stars book series is already available to purchase, filming for it is expected to begin next summer in Seattle and the Eastside. King plans to shoot at Harbor Studios and hopes to include local Queer landmarks.

“I still want to film at the Wildrose, if we can get them,” she said. “We have a club scene. Trinity and the Wildrose would just be perfect.”

King also mentioned needing “a little bit of desert,” adding that parts of Eastern Washington may be featured in outdoor scenes.

Glass Stars will span five seasons, with six episodes each. The pilot will run close to 60 minutes, while other episodes will range between 30 and 45 minutes. King said the team is aiming to premiere by fall of 2026, with a full launch and screening celebration taking place in Seattle. Additionally, a reading is planned for the following January.

“People can come and just hang out and visit and ask questions and respond to the show,” she said.

The pilot and series will premiere on the Cathexis Films YouTube channel, followed by distribution through Reverie, which is a Queer-oriented streaming platform. King hopes to be the flagship sci-fi series on Reverie.

However, Glass Stars won’t be headed to Amazon.

 “I just don’t want to give Amazon any more money,” King said.

The cast includes a wide range of identities, which is bound to burst through television screens.

“We have Trans, we have Nonbinary characters, we have cis-het characters too. There’s a huge diversity,” King said.

For a creator once branded a failure, Glass Stars is a radical act of reclamation.